Welp, after getting several "where are the 2007 VanTiki mugs?" PM's I decided I better update the Ohana on the goings-on in VanTiki Studio! Rest assured, I have not been idle I set January aside to finally get cooking on a project I've been wanting to tackle for over a year: TikiTile! Yessir - genuine hand-pressed high-relief tiles for your bar, kitchen, bathroom, or grass shack! (well - maybe not so much for the shack)

It all started with the construction of the VanTiki Studio Tile Press. It is based on a Tile Press design by tile artist Frank Giorgio. I made some modifications to beef it up a bit. Had a great time putting it together - especially since the materials only cost around $150 - and a store bought tile press in this size starts at over $700!

Next up - sculpting the tiles. I did a TON of doodles for tile designs (most of them were done while I spent many hours waiting in the stand-by ticket line when Prairie Home Companion came to Hawaii), and picked 8 favorites for my first tile set. Of those, I decided to sculpt only a few tiles (the simplest) to get a handle on the process before doing the entire series. Here are the first sculpts - all are based on my Jabber Pod mug. Two 4" Jabber faces, a 2" Jabber face, and a 2" wood grain field tile. All are sculpted in a soft oil-based clay made by Chavant (Chavant Le Beau Touche):

I made plaster molds of the above tiles (I was able to pull three molds off the field tile - whoo!) - and then had to wait a painstaking 10 days for the plaster to dry out enough for me to press clay into the molds. Sunday night I decided to give it a go - and things went very smoothly. The tile press worked like a charm (had to bolt it down to the table - it REALLY has a lot of leverage) - and the first run of tiles looked great. Had a bit of trouble with the high relief on the 4" tiles - but a little creative packing on pressing round 2 seems to have solved the problem. Here are some of the first freshly pressed tiles:

Whew! So now you know what I've been up to this month! Next up I gotta sculpt the rest of the "series 1" tiles and glaze the ones I've pressed. Not to worry - I'm still doing mugs! In fact - I've got a bunch of sketches that I can't wait to turn into clay.

"You know what sells really well and is the easiest thing to make is a Tiki Tile. You can go into almost any art store and there they are. Its a ceramic art piece that you get to hang on your wall. If I ran a ceramic shop, this would be one of the first things I would do. Its hip to be square." Posted: 2006-11-16 10:08 am by teaKEY

So all my mugs are packed up in boxes & we are getting ready to tear the entire kitchen & family room up & WOW at these tiles... Perfect & brilliant!! nice original with a high end look, like nothing else... Be great to include a few of these...
_________________hiphipahula.com/

The word unique is overused so much nowadays it's like seeing RARE on an ebay Leilani listing -- BUT, your work and these tiles especially, is far and away the most differentiated and dare I say UNIQUE ceramic work involving tikis that I have seen. Really well crafted too.

PS

Depending on their placement I can see some of those Moai mouths working nicely as an integrated soap dish or cup holder. I'm thinkin' bar top, by the pool or hot tub, bathrooms.....

*blush* - you guys are the best! Nothing makes me wanna push clay in the studio more than your nice comments! Been busy at night and on weekends continuing the tiles - here is a photo update:

top left: The ever-growing tile army on the drying rack. These guys are almost ready for the bisque firing. I just ordered 4 new glazes (in gallon batches - I don't even want to know what the shipping quote will be) for these guys - wanted something that would break and flow over the details and add depth. Can't wait!

top right: One of 2 pattern sculpts in oil clay. These are ment to be rotated when installed so you get a zig-zag pattern. Will be doing more tiki face tile sculptures next saturday.

Botton left: The finished zig-zag tiles ready to mold. I did 2 sculpts of the same tile with grain variations so there would be less of a "pattern repeat" when you install them. Finished molds can be seen stacked up in next to the tile press.

Bottom right: Zig-zag tiles molded. The mold on the left has set up and is ready to pry up, and the mold on the right has just been poured. I was able to pull 2 molds each off of the original sculptures - yaaay! The plaster molds will need to dry out for a week or so before I can press them. I'm shooting for sunday afternoon (been rainy around here - so that may not work).

Welp - I got a call a few days ago telling me I am back ordered on some glaze chemicals and I may have to wait three weeks for the stuff. Ug - the dilemma is: do I ship what they have and ship the rest later, or wait and save a ton of $$ by bundling everything in one shipment? As far as I figure shipping is the only real downside of living out here

Anyways - I guess the delay will mean I'll have more tiles ready to glaze! I'm starting another tile sculpture this weekend, and was able to press a batch of the zig-zag tiles a few days ago. Wanted to press more - but a) the molds were not quite dry enough just yet, and b) I gotta go get some more clay! I love the way they create different patters depending on how you rotate them. Here are a few resting on the drying racks:

I'll post more news as things progress. Can't wait to get some color on these guys!